Fixes/tweaks needed on Traps, mana spikes, and occupying cities

Stratics Veteran

Lets be honest ,mana spike and traps arn't good considering their cost in silver: the radius of the mana spike is like half the screen and its a one use , same with traps. I prefer doing a supernova potion which deal damage and cost 50 silver instead of wasting 2500 silver on a mana spike that cost you half your mana also. Right now I can throw 50 supernovas potions that deals 25-30 damage to all targets with gm alchemy for the price of a one use mana spike. There 's an issue somewhere.
SUGGESTION TO THE DEVS aka @Kyronix : if you want to make the mana spike and traps more useful and desirable, put a duration on trap and a cooldown between each triggers . Same with mana spike. Make them last whole battle but a cooldown of 1 minute between each triggers. That would probly give a reason to spend that much silver instead of a one use. I mean supernova which is 10 potions for 500 silver is ALOT more useful in all ways. Make mana spikes and traps last whole fight and cooldown of 1minute between triggers please devs listen, whos going to pay 2500 silver for a one ''area of effect'' detect hidden to win a battle that give 400 silver duh. Just no point in wasting 2500 silver for a 400 silver battle or less unless they(devs) plan on making other rewards/buffs or whatever for leading the VvV leaderboard or something but right now the silver it gives you is just not enough to spend that on one use traps and mana spike !
Besides that, good job on all the rest of VvV, it makes pvp revive!!! few tweaks/fixes with the proportion of points given for occupying city for afk hidden characters and maybe thief for stealing sigils (I think sigils should give same points as altars if thats not the case right now and should also have the same times respawn as altars) and it is going to be all good for VvV Until then, will be waiting impatiently for updates with VvV

Stratics Veteran

I agree with reducing afk claiming and the need to re-vamp mana spike, traps and even the robes (can't even convert to Garg) but I'll support the thieves in that it uses a huge amount of non combat related skills to find sigils and then steal them. In a battles between Sigils and Altars, it should be close but Sigils should win out. So if you claim altars and ignore people taking the sigils you will lose the battle...

VIPStratics Veteran

Thanks for the suggestions. Mana spikes will effect all enemies inside the battle region. It's a global no-hiding debuff for 60 seconds currently. What do you think of the last batch of changes made to VvV in 87 in terms of point cost for traps and spikes?

Stratics Veteran

Thanks for the suggestions. Mana spikes will effect all enemies inside the battle region. It's a global no-hiding debuff for 60 seconds currently. What do you think of the last batch of changes made to VvV in 87 in terms of point cost for traps and spikes?

Click to expand...

Fantastic change! It makes using the Mana spike worthwhile and thieves don't get a free pass... yet it doesn't render them ineffective or less critical to the battle. It just requires a thief to pass a sigil off if they are a non fighting type or rely on other skills for that minute window (the thieves I work with will enjoy as they have felt a little unchallenged to this point). They are also costly enough not to be used indiscriminately and might be saved for that particularly troublesome thief when all conventional methods are failing or in a 1v1 situation where stopping a thief alone can be very hard.

Also the price changes are great 250 for traps and 1000 for mana spike low enough to encourage people to use them. The turent might be something that is still pricy to use for one battle at 3k. (But I also understand you don't want all battles completely determined by the items and keeping them higher forces players to pick and choose which battles are worth going the extra mile for).

One aspect I don't have issue with but I think others will is the reduced ability to make silver.... On Origin since publish I haven't had many encounters (but that could be due to Halloween content) and none from Tram based item farmers who I protect against the more vicious guilds. Making silver to get something like a 10k item will be an extremely long process (which I am okay with) and now that traps are 250 and mana spike 1k I think those will still be cheap enough to use.

Previously I was making about a 500 silver per victory with new publish its hard to make more then 20 (on a shard like Origin). Maybe a 100 silver bonus for a victory if at least 1 altar was claimed or one sigil returned to eliminate the afk hidden city claimers, something the improved mana spike will also help eliminate. (I still think that puts the maximum silver attainable around that 500 mark with all altars sigils and victory attained.)

I appreciate you taking the time to look at the feedback! Incorporating it is a fantastic bonus. We will continue to test and provide feedback,

Stratics Veteran

Match point gains from claiming an altar as well as returning a sigil have been equalized.

The cool down period between gaining match and silver points for kills has been reduced from five minutes to two minutes.

Players that are hidden will no longer count towards occupying a city for occupation match points.

Click to expand...

I love that hidden characters do not count towards occupation but now that mana spike works much better and hidden characters don't get occupation time/silver - doesn't making Altars and Sigils the same value remove the value of thieves.

I haven't tested but it sounds like in a scenario where two people are in town fighting for control, the thief will lose out despite investing at least 200 skill points specifically for VvV and to steal sigils.

Basically each moment a thief is hidden, the other participants will gain occupation time which is great but if sigils are worth slightly more then an altar a thief can at least make up some of the gap in occupation by stealing and delivering sigils... then if they are risky they can be visible more often to try and level things out.

That will encourage thieves to participate and risk being seen otherwise why bother with sigils just claim altars which are the same value.

Stratics is the oldest continually running MMORPG Fansite on the Internet. Founded in 1997 Stratics has served the Ultima Online Community for 18 years. We strive to provide the most complete social experience for Ultima Online players.